The Tooth Fairy

Emma: I'm going to ask the Tooth Fairy for a magic wand, so I can wish for a thousand dollars and we can be the richest family ever.  Then, we can eat at Qdoba every day.

Emma came home from school one day and was telling us all about the Tooth Fairy at dinner.  At first I thought it was odd that she was talking about the Tooth Fairy, since we had never mentioned it at home and she still had all her teeth.  I caught on quickly when she started talking about her friends that got money from the Tooth Fairy.  That's when she told us that she was going to ask the Tooth Fairy for a magic wand, so she could wish for lots of money.  This is why I love Emma - she is so smart.  Why settle for a dollar, when you can wish for a magic wand and have money whenever you want it?

It was a few months after this that Emma finally lost her first tooth.  She was taking her evening bath with her sisters and they were goofing off.  Somehow Charlotte kneed Emma in the mouth and her tooth popped right out.  She was so happy!  She came running out of the bathroom to tell me what happened.  She couldn't wait to see what the Tooth Fairy would bring her.  Sadly, the Tooth Fairy must have been out of wands because Emma had to settle for a new toothbrush and a dollar.

The Lost Art of Reading

I read a little book this weekend called The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time by David Ulin.  In this little book, Ulin sums up a lot of the problems with society.  We move from one news story to the next without contemplating the story in the bigger picture of things.  We are easily distracted by all the various forms of media.  In the rush to stay up with the latest and greatest, our memory of history is effected.  I love this section from the book:

"to read, we need a certain kind of silence, an ability to filter out noise.  That seems increasingly elusive in our overnetworked society, where every buzz and rumor is instantly blogged and tweeted, and it is not contemplation we desire but an odd sort of distraction, distraction masquerading as being in the know.  In such a landscape, knowledge can't help but fall prey to illusion, albeit an illusion that is deeply seductive, with its promise that speed can lead us to illumination, that it is more important to react than to think deeply, that something must be attached to every bit of time.  Here, we have my reading problem in a nutshell, for books insist we take the opposite position, that we immerse, slow down."  (p. 34)

Ulin's 151 page book brings up a lot of interesting points in regards to how our consumption of information has fragmented the thinking of the general public.  He gives the example of how reading on websites engages the part of our brain that has to do with judgment (which link to click next) and diminishes activity in the part of the brain that has to do with comprehension.  Not to mention that when we click on links from one page to another, we are often reinforcing our own opinion.  Looking for other evidence to support our point of view rather than expand it.

The last point that I thought was interesting had to do with how information presented online is seen as fact, when much of what is posted on blogs and even news sites is very subjective writing that is not always based in fact.  He includes an excerpt from a graduation speech delivered by Barack Obama to make this point.

"Meanwhile you are coming to age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter.  And with iPods and iPads; Xboxes and Playstations - none of which I know how to work- information becomes a distraction , a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment,rather than the means of emancipation." (p. 62)

The Shame of the Nation

This week, I finished reading The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol.  If you haven't read anything by Kozol, you really should go to your local library and check out one of his books. He is an educator that has written extensively about the plight of children in urban schools.  A few weeks ago, I read Savage Inequalities, which is a book he wrote in the late 80s/early 90s to expose the inequality in educational experience between children in the suburbs versus the cities.  The sad truth is that not much has changed for these children in the twenty years between these books.

There are so many issues raised in his books about the educational system in the United States that I could write pages about them.  Issues like the financing of school systems, the segregation of minority children, the high dropout rates for minority children, and the role of politics and business in educational decision making.  In my attempt to keep this post short, I just want to comment on one little piece from the book that really stuck with me.  Here is a quote:

"Merit, no matter how it may have been attained, is somehow self-confirming.  They early advantages one may have had become irrelevant to most of us once a plateau of high achievement has been reached.  The years we may have spent when we were three or four years old in a superb developmental preschool, the strategies our parents may have used to win us entrance to a first-rate elementary school, and all the other preferential opportunities that may have introduced us to the channels in which academic competence has been attained - all this falls out of view once we arrive in a position in which we can demonstrate to others, and ourselves, that our proficiences are indisputably superior to those of other students of our age who may not have had these opportunities."  (p. 140-141)

Just before this particular quote, Kozol was talking to students in an privileged high school in New York City.  The students were basically saying that they deserved to have all the benefits afforded to them in their high school - great teachers, cultural experiences, top notch facilities, and a variety of high level courses - because they were the best students.  They failed to realize they were the best students because of all the extra benefits they had received throughout their life. It was easy for them to look down on the students in other schools who were not as academically successful, but they didn't acknowledge that these students have been educated in subpar buildings with overcrowded classrooms, in many cases without textbooks or regular teachers.

These are the same people that will grow up in many cases to be our nation's leaders.  How can we expect them to have empathy for people who are not as privileged as them, when, as young people, they have no empathy for those less fortunate?

Since I'm a Doctor...

I have my M.D.*, so I can now diagnose medical problems in my children.  Most recently, I have diagnosed Ella with colic.  This child cries more than Emma, Charlotte, and Cristina combined. I'm pretty sure if she was my first child I would have tied my tubes myself.  At first, I thought maybe she wasn't getting enough attention and that is why she was crying all the time.  I quickly realized that was not the case considering that Brian and I have both spent hours trying to comfort her.  Emma, Charlotte, and Cristina have all done their part to try and soothe her.  It seems that none of us are very good at it and we are all starting to lose our patience with Ella.  Case in point....

Today, Cristina, Ella, and I were all sitting in the car while Brian was pumping gas. As usual, Ella was crying, while Cristina was trying to watch a movie.  After a few minutes, I hear Cristina say, "Shut up."  I turned around and she is staring at Ella.  Then, she pulls her pacifier** out of her mouth and says, "I SAID shut up."  I about died laughing.  When Cristina realized Ella wasn't going to stop crying, she sighed, looked at me and said, "Will you turn it up?"  (She was talking about the tv volume.)

*Mother's Diploma
**Don't judge.  We don't have the energy to get Cristina to give up her pacifier. 

Living in the Moment

Brian totally called me out for yesterday's post.  He said I wasn't living in the moment.  So, I'm going to share a funny story from today.  It might be just a little jab at Brian for calling me out.  First, I have to share a little backstory.
In January, we made the decision that we could only handle four children, so we decided we needed an effective form of birth control.  You know, something more effective than an IUD.  Brian decided on a vasectomy.  He went in and got snipped.  He left with instructions to return with a sample after twenty emissions or six weeks whichever came first.  (No pun intended.)  That brings us to today's story.

Brian went in this morning to drop off his sample.  When he is checking in at the lab, the receptionist is confused as to why he is bringing in a second sample.  According to her records, a sample was received on March 2 - six weeks after his procedure.  Brian tries explaining to her that this is not a second sample, while she keeps telling him that there is no order in the system for a second sample.  (Perhaps she was confused as to why it has taken him five months to get one sample in.) Finally, exasperated, Brian says, "Listen, I have four kids at home, I could barely get this sample."  That cracked the women up and she finally agreed to take it. 

Little House on the Praire

I hope you aren't expecting a post about the Ingalls family.  This isn't really about the Ingalls.  It's just one of my crazy thought chains.  I was randomly thinking about Little House on the Praire, which got me thinking about family.  Then, I got depressed because we don't live near family. It made me wish I could move closer to family.  Or better yet, my family could all move to Atlanta.  That would be perfect.

It's tough raising children without family nearby.  The kids don't have cousins nearby to play with or grandparents who can come to school plays and dance recitals.  Brian and I have no one that we can drop the kids with on short notice, so we can go out on our own. Sometimes it feels really lonely.  Well, as lonely as you can feel with a house full of children.

When I was a kid, I grew up in the same town as both sets of grandparents and a mess of aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended family.  We were always going to Grandma's house for dinner - feasting on fried chicken and macaroni and cheese.  We spent summers playing outside with our cousins where we created all sorts of crazy games.  We watched old movies with my grandparents - Gone with the Wind, The Sound of Music, and The Parent Trap.

It makes me sad that my kids won't have the same experiences.  If only we lived on a big homestead out on the praire.....

The Long Commute

If you've spent any time around me, you know I have a long commute because I'm always whining about it.  Waaaaaahhhhh....I have to leave my house at the crack of dawn to ride to the bus stop to catch the bus to catch the train to finish with a brisk walk to work.  Waaaaaaahhhh....I have to do it in reverse to get home.  I spend a lot of time traveling with the other commuters in the Atlanta metro area. 

In my quest to live in the moment and not dream about the day that I have a helicopter and personal pilot to drop me at work, I've been thinking about the perks of public transportation.  I've determined the main perk is the opportunity for people watching.  I've been riding the MARTA for almost two years and I have a few favorites on my daily route.

There is the man who works for the water department.  He has gigantic ears, a long ponytail and a giant bald spot in the middle of his head.  I'd really like to tell him that the long hair does not distract from the bald spot.  In fact, it makes it a little more obvious.

There is the woman with an abundant amount of hair who jumps out of her seat when the train reaches the end of the line.  She rushes to the door often knocking people with her bag, so she can be the first off the train.  For the longest time, I thought she was the rudest person ever.  Last week, she was sitting next to me and told me that she likes this particular seat because she can get off the train fast.  She said that she is afraid of being in the middle of the crowd when going down the stairs to the exit.  Okay. 

However, my personal favorite is Jeffrey Dahmer.   Well, not THE Jeffrey Dahmer, but a guy that bears a resemblance.  For the longest time, Brian and I were calling this guy Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeff has a habit of staring at people on the bus.  One day, I told Brian he was staring at me - probably thinking that my breasts would make a nice snack and my hips would be great on the barbeque.  Well, one day, something happened that really made me think I commute with Jeffrey Dahmer. 

It's Friday morning and Jeff is at the bus stop with a cooler.  He gets on the bus in front of me and the driver says, "ahh, you got some cold ones in there?!"  Jeff responds as if he is not amused at the idea, "It's nothing like that."  Okay, you can't convince me that the cooler was filled with anything other than elbows and toes.